CPAC Movie: Counter Terrorism Expert Explains ‘Olympus Has Fallen’

CPAC is turning mainstream – at least in movie screenings.
Last Friday, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) hosted a
showing of “Olympus Has
Fallen,” set for release to theaters March 22.

The film starred such big names as Morgan Freeman, Gerard
Butler, Ashley Judd, and Aaron Eckhart – which may come as a surprise, for the
conservative audience. After all, Freeman is a very public Obama supporter and Judd
considered challenging Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, as a Democrat in the
2014 Kentucky
elections

Asked if “Olympus” is a
conservative film, a counter-terrorism expert and veteran of presidential
details for former President George H. W. Bush, Ricky Jones, who consulted on
the movie confessed, “I have no idea.” But he told the Culture and Media Institute “We hope that
everyone who walks away feels very patriotic.”

The R-rated thriller illustrated a “what-if” scenario,
where North Korean terrorists attacked the White House (Secret Service Code: “Olympus”) and kidnapped the president. A disgraced former
presidential guard, Mike Banning, became trapped in the White House and
communicated with national security operatives to save the president while
relying on his past experience.

Could the attack happen in real life? “Not the attack we did,”
according to Jones. He suggested an imminent threat to the White House;
however: “With the budget cuts that they’re taking in the military, with the
budget cuts in intelligence, with us pushing Israel away, which is our greatest
ally on intelligence from that continent, with the home-grown terrorists … with
the people coming in here as students that are terrorists … the White House
could be attacked at any time.”

But even under threats, “… America, by the grace of God, and
the heart of the American public, bounces back. And, it’s a very patriotic
thing. That America
can ban together to fight terrorism,” said Jones.

The greatest challenge for the film, according the Jones,
was “to keep it as a movie,” and show the “realism of what attacks do.”

Jones concluded that the movie promotes American pride,
saying, “So I think this movie and again it’s just a movie, but I think
everybody should … walk away with, ‘Yeah, I’m proud to be an American.’”

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